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Great Britain
Sprint Weekend
Race21h 4m
Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the British Grand Prix with another impressive performance to beat the Ferraris and team-mate George Russell.
Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar said there was “no point” going to a race if he expects to lose multiple places at the start, after another poor getaway in the sprint at Silverstone. Hadjar said: "We can't get starts. We just don't understand it. There is no point going to a race if you know you're going to lose four places straight away. In my case, I lost even more than that. It's shocking, all the time."
Lewis Hamilton said Ferrari have “work to do to close that gap” after he was overtaken by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in the Silverstone Sprint, having started from pole position. Hamilton said: "I said yesterday, that could be difficult. With the strong headwind down the back straight today, Kimi came flying past. I was pushing as hard as I could and gave it absolutely everything. Well done to Kimi. We've got work to do to close that gap."
Lando Norris said the Silverstone Sprint was “better than I was expecting” after finishing third and battling George Russell and Max Verstappen. Norris said: "A pleasant surprise. A good launch, good opening lap and some good battles with both George and Max. Well fought and better than I was expecting. It wasn't like the pace was crazy strong because these guys checked out and disappeared. But the fact I could hold on and not make any mistakes was good, so very happy with today."
Lewis Hamilton said a lack of power and energy deployment out of Stowe left him unable to keep Kimi Antonelli behind in the British Grand Prix Sprint at Silverstone. Hamilton said: "One of the biggest places is when you come out of Stowe, Turn 15, you get on power, and there's no power, and that's when he was catching me massively. Then, getting into the overtake mode, and once he got the overtake mode, I couldn't hold him back after that because he had extra deployment through the lap, and I couldn't break that one-second barrier then. So as soon as that was lost, I knew he was coming."
Kimi Antonelli says Mercedes cannot afford to “let our guard lower” and must “keep raising that bar” after his Sprint Race victory at Silverstone, with Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren applying pressure. Antonelli said: "Yeah, I mean, obviously the momentum is there, and we're doing a great job together with the team. But of course, you know, we can't let our guard [get] lower, because Lewis and Ferrari have done an incredible job, and Red Bull and McLaren, they're coming, and also the George is super quick, so we just need to keep raising that bar and, you know, keep delivering performances."
Max Verstappen said Red Bull was "just too slow" in Saturday’s Silverstone sprint after he dropped from third on the grid to sixth at the chequered flag as he struggled to match the pace of those around him. Verstappen said: "Just too slow. We were degging more than the cars around me and especially getting destroyed in the high-speed. Just couldn't keep with them. Then sliding more to try and keep up with them and then you deg your tyres more."
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said the team misjudged its fuel consumption prediction in the British Grand Prix sprint, which meant Lando Norris had to manage fuel in the closing stages. Stella said: "It's not about [underfueling]. It's more about the prediction as to the fuel consumption. So you needed to adapt to what actually the consumption [is], dependent on the various conditions or the racing. This is a very interesting Formula 1 with these power units. You have a yo-yo effect, which obviously moves data from what you think is the baseline. But definitely a situation that you would like to avoid because it takes a few tenths off the gap."
George Russell said his fourth place in the British Grand Prix Sprint at Silverstone was “not ideal” and that he “probably” should have finished third. Russell said: "Yeah, Lap 1 was great and I did two great overtakes in two corners, then I got a bit left vulnerable. On the next straights I got overtaken by the McLarens, so I need to understand how I managed to pull the moves off but then how I lost positions again anyway. P3 is probably where I should have finished – I finished in P4, one point less. Not ideal, but main focus is on Quali now."
Several drivers criticised the “yo-yo” racing in the British Grand Prix sprint at Silverstone, saying major differences in energy deployment created abrupt speed changes, made the opening laps feel unsafe and left much of the racing dictated by battery levels rather than driver skill. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri said “lap one was just chaos with the energy usage” and “pretty dangerous at some points”, adding that he spent much of it “trying to avoid crashing into the back of people”. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc said battles were difficult because cars had “very different deployment” strategies, creating “huge differences” in speed that made overtaking and defending “tricky”.
Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg has been given a five-second post-race time penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage in the British Grand Prix sprint at Silverstone, PlanetF1 reports. The stewards ruled he ran wide at Turn 9 (Copse) on lap one while defending from Haas’s Esteban Ocon and kept the position, with Hulkenberg dropping from 13th to 15th in the final classification.
Liam Lawson has kept his point-scoring result from the Silverstone sprint after the stewards issued him with a warning over his defence against Isack Hadjar into Turn 15. The stewards accepted that Lawson had not clearly begun braking, that he left Hadjar enough room and that contact was avoided, but judged the move to be “sufficiently late and abrupt” and “marginally over the limit of what is acceptable when defending into a corner.”
Lewis Hamilton said he was powerless to stop championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli overtaking him for the lead in the British Grand Prix sprint after the Mercedes driver deployed his battery charge. Hamilton said: "Once he got the overtake mode, then I couldn't hold him back, because he has extra deployment through the lap, and I couldn't break that one-second barrier then. So, as soon as that was lost, I knew that was coming."
Lando Norris said his frustrated McLaren radio message after finishing third in the British Grand Prix sprint was aimed at “simple stuff” the team needs to improve because it is limiting their performance and ability to score points. Norris said: "[It's] just a few things. I don't need to get into it, but just some [things] we should be doing a better job on. It's just quite simple stuff that limits our performance and our potential to get podiums and points when we need to. So it's just some things that we need to better as a team."
Williams team principal James Vowles says the major upgrade package the team plans to introduce at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is effectively a “B-spec” car and a test of Williams’ ability to deliver big in-season changes to the right quality. James Vowles said: "The best way to describe it to you is it's a B-spec car. It's a new chassis, and other bits that go with at the same time. That will be a large upgrade, that's true. In terms of our direction of travel, we have to – as a business – prove to ourselves that we can do the engineering to the right level of quality, and build a car to the right level of quality in-season – effectively the equivalency of flying the plane and rebuilding it at the same time."
Kimi Antonelli said he “used everything” to overtake Lewis Hamilton during their battle in the Silverstone Sprint, which the championship leader went on to win. Antonelli said: "It was a very fun first 10 laps with Lewis. We were both pushing very hard. When I got into Overtake [Mode], I knew my chance was coming. Out of Turn Four I was very close, so I went alongside into Brooklyns but he used the boost, so I decided to wait. Going into Stowe I used everything I had, then I was able to overtake."
Christian Horner is set to return to the Formula 1 paddock as a guest at this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, his first F1 appearance since leaving Red Bull last July. The former Red Bull team principal has also announced his first memoir, Drive, to be published by Transworld on 22 October, with an audiobook version narrated by Horner. The book’s blurb describes it as “vivid, candid and uncompromising” and says it will cover his time “at the sharp end of the F1 grid” with Red Bull.
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